Q: What are the data of medication prescription, medication dispensing, and medication administration?
A: These are medication data at three different stages.
- medication prescription data: record of a health provider ordering or authorizing a drug to be given to a patient, in the form of paper or electronic, semi-structured.
- medication dispensing data: record of a pharmacy giving a drug to a patient to be taken later at home. These are structured data.
- medication administration data: record of a nurse or healthcare provider directly giving a drug to a patient in a clinic or hospital. Data include who, how, and why a medication is given. These are structured data.